Will Freddy return to Newcastle United?
Posted on June 29th, 2009 | 12 Comments |
The Mirror reports that neither bid is for the £100m Ashley wants but will be somewhere around the £80-90m mark. Apparently due diligence has already been performed and the deal could be finalised within a few weeks.
There may be some truth in this but the Mirror’s report looks a bit suspicious. There were no direct quotes and there weren’t even any ‘sources close to the club’ or ‘insiders’ mentioned in the report. It has all the look of an inventive guess by a bored journalist.
Nevertheless it’s raising the frightening prospect of Freddy Shepherd taking over the club again, which is a fairly depressing thought. We’re stuck between a rock and hard place: is it better to carry on ownerless or is it better to have Freddy Shepherd take over? That’s like someone saying you must lose either an arm or a leg but you can choose which. Neither prospect is appealing and I hope a third option emerges as the eventual solution.
Anyway, The Mirror’s report goes on to point out that Freddy Shepherd has already stated he will be appointing Alan Shearer as manager if he becomes the club’s new owner. I’d be interested to know what Alan thinks of the idea of working for Freddy Shepherd – he’ll have had plenty of experience working under the Shepherd regime as a player and he even did a brief spell of co-management with Glen Roeder. If Shepherd does get the club and Shearer agrees to work for him I won’t know whether to be disappointed in him for doing so or glad that he’s there to try and influence the way things go – probably both.
I had previously doubted Shepherd’s ability to raise the necessary finance but he keeps getting mentioned in connection with this and I feel I should start preparing myself in case it happens, so I’ll renew all my prescription medications and line up a few stiff drinks.
Hugh it would certainly be the stuff of a lot of peoples nightmares. After everything that happened during his tenure I can’t believe that some fans would still welcome him back. Lets hope someone outbids him. I know Ashley probably doesn’t care and just wants rid of the club, but can’t imagine if he had a choice that he would choose to sell to the scrapman… maybe wishful thinking on my part.